Tshepo Tshabalala: Exploring media innovation in Africa in the age of AI

For years, journalism has had a love-hate relationship with technology. First came social media, then podcasts, and now AI, each wave bringing both opportunity and disruption.The rise of content creators and independent publishers has broken traditional media monopolies, giving audiences more voices and perspectives than ever before. But it has also created misinformation, audience fragmentation, and what Tshepo Tshabalala, manager & team lead at JournalismAI, described as “bubble consumption”, where people only follow creators who reinforce their beliefs. At the same time, journalism continues to struggle financially. Despite billions flowing into African tech startups over the past decade, media innovation has attracted relatively little venture capital because news businesses are difficult to scale like software companies.“What we’re struggling to do as journalism platforms is sell the value that is journalism,” Tshabalala said. On AI, Tshabalala warned that Africa risks becoming dependent on systems built elsewhere, especially since many African languages remain poorly represented in global AI models. He argued that African newsrooms need to help build local datasets and AI tools that understand regional contexts. Still, he rejected the idea that AI will replace journalists entirely.“AI won’t replace journalists, but it will replace the journalists who refuse to use AI,” he said. According to Tshabalala, routine newsroom tasks may become automated, but human skills like investigative reporting, source-building, and editorial judgement will remain essential.You can connect to Tshepo on LinkedIn hereCheck out some cool use cases of AI from the JournalismAI library here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit techaways.substack.com